An antibiotic-resistant strain of ‘Super gonorrhoea’ has been identified in London.
The strain is resistant to ceftriaxon, which is the main drug used to treat the sexually transmitted infection (STI) where four cases been discovered in the UK in total.
In light of this, men’s health platform Manual have looked into the regions of the UK with the highest number of STIs, using data from Public Health England and the Office for Nationals Statistics (ONS).
London came out on top with the highest number of recorded STI cases in England, a total of 87,690 cases in 2020.
The South East was the region with the second highest number of cases with 32,972, followed by the North West with 29,972.
The North East was the region with the fewest number of cases at 11,251, while the East Midlands had 18,920 cases in 2020.
The results also show that chlamydia is the most common STI in each region of England. In London, there were 43,964 reported cases of chlamydia. With a population of 9,002,488 people that means 0.5% of the population or 1 in every 200 people are affected by the infection.
There were 20,281 reported cases of chlamydia in the South East, while the North West had 17,955.
Leading Clinical Sexologist Ness Cooper explains: “When it comes to where people live, lots of factors can have an impact on how likely you are to contract an STI.
“For example, was your school progressive or conservative when it came to openness around sex? Were local clinics available for you to regularly test yourself? How insightful was your sex education, and did your school or college offer out free condoms?
“Places where there are laws preventing expression of sexuality, and cultural expectations can also be a big factor in access to STI prevention and treatment.”
The study by Manual also compared which STIs were most common among different age groups in 2020.
The research found that chlamydia was most common among adults aged 20-24 with 60,059 cases. This is closely followed by adults aged 25-34 with 47,260 cases of chlamydia and those aged between 15-19 were the third highest, with 32,731 cases.
